It has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,381,783--Elias--to form an improved absorbent articles having several pockets of highly absorbent material.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,282,465--Walbrun--discloses a system for uniting two kinds of web material between embossed rolls. Further, it is disclosed that adhesive may be applied to one of the web materials as it rests on the lands of one of the embossed rolls.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,055,180--Karami--discloses an absorbent article that has pockets for retaining highly absorbent materials.
While it has been proposed that highly absorbent materials be placed in discrete locations on a substrate in order to better expose them to liquids without gel blocking or sagging, the placement and sealing of the particulate material into a large number of discrete areas has been unsatisfactory.
Methods using air forming of fibers and superabsorbent hydrocolloidal materials such as Great Britain Patent Application No. 2,140,471 are difficult to control and may cause lose of superabsorbent during forming as it is removed with the forming air. Further, air forming methods do not allow precise placement of superabsorbent materials in well-defined areas. There remains a need for a reliable, low-cost and effective method and apparatus for forming discrete areas of superabsorbent material.